ROOF Blog

Fundamental reforms in social housing are needed to tackle concentrated areas of deprivation, a report from Localis has said. The report said that councils and registered social landlords need to fix broken neighbourhoods and should be given the ‘right to manage’ their housing stock. It also wants the role of social housing to be better defined – separating a ‘duty to house’ and a ‘duty to help’ - and called for an end to the varying tenures and rent levels between the private and social rented sectors.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and CABE have announced they are teaming up to improve the design quality of new homes, following the publication of a survey into the design of new affordable housing. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and CABE have announced they are teaming up to improve the design quality of new homes, following the publication of a survey into the design of new affordable housing. The findings showed nearly that 61 per cent of housing schemes were average and 18 per cent good or very good, compared with 21 per cent assessed as poor including a ‘lack of distinctiveness’ and having design that ‘does not correspond to its context’. The report recommends closer working between registered social landlords (RSLs) and local planning authorities, and enforcing minimum design standards. In a joint statement the HCA and Cabe said: ‘The HCA will continue to promote high standards of quality in all the housing it funds… CABE will continue to support the HCA and RSLs across the country to make this a reality.’

Just under 35 per cent of England’s housing stock – some 7.7 million homes – is failing decent homes standards, according to the English House Condition Survey, published yesterday. Registered social landlord stock was the least likely to be non-decent at 26 per cent, while private rented accommodation was most likely to be non-decent (45 per cent). Overall, 1.1 million homes in the social sector were non-decent and social housing was much less likely to be non-decent than privately owned houses (29 per cent compared with 36 per cent).